Matsumoto_hideto wrote:
A correction 好き is neither a verb nor an adjictive its in a special class of words known as the "Copula" which is the special useage of inflicted verbs so grammatically Suki is a copula Noun.

I stand corrected.

As a copula noun, though, it operates within a sentence pretty much exactly like a な-adjective. So, it would have が as its identifying particle, it would be attached to other nouns with な, would be listed in adjective/copula sequences with で, etc, etc.

This is probably the reason I had it labeled in my mind as an adjective.

Thanks for pointing out the distinction.

ya! basically

you just have to remember that na is immediately followed by suki

*confused* now i'm confused...would it be right to use "wo" and to say:
watashi wa nihon wo suki desu
?

you have the right idea but since suki is a copula noun it always uses na

but in any other situation you would be correct!

自由た〜！！！
All things appear and disappear because of the concurrence of causes and conditions. Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.

In Quick Facts about: linguistics
The scientific study of languagelinguistics, a copula is a word that is used to link the Quick Facts about: subject
The subject matter of a conversation or discussionsubject of a Quick Facts about: sentence
A string of words satisfying the grammatical rules of a languagesentence with a Quick Facts about: predicate
(logic) what is predicated of the subject of a proposition; the second term in a proposition is predicated of the first term by means of the copulapredicate (a subject Quick Facts about: complement
Number needed to make up whole forcecomplement or an adverbial). Though it might not itself express any action or condition, it serves to associate the subject with a predicate that could not stand by itself.

A copula is sometimes (though not always) a Quick Facts about: verb
A word that serves as the predicate of a sentenceverb or a verb-like part of speech. (in English Quick Facts about: primary education
Quick Summary not found for this subjectprimary education grammar courses it is often called a linking verb).

The term is generally used to refer to the main copular verb in the language: in the case of English, this is "to be". It can also be used to refer to all such verbs in the language: in that case, English copulas include, "to be", "to become", "to get" and "to seem".

So basically from what i can understand in japanese, modal auxilaries are copula nouns

im probably wrong tho....

Japanese has two verbs translating as "to be": ある aru for existence, used of inanimate objects and plants; いる iru for the same, used of animals and people. Another form of the copula, だ da, cannot be given a corresponding part of speech in English, but is used to equate nouns and to attribute complex (な na) adjectives. In formal speech, its formal conjugation です desu is used to attribute regular (い i) adjectives as well. In informal speech, だ is unnecessary when using a regular adjective.

Note: Japanese verbs and adjectives conjugate differently depending on the level of politeness. All examples are shown with the "plain" form, used between friends or by superiors to their inferiors. Japanese syntax is very different from English, for example with verbs coming at the end of the sentence. The translations are literal translations, so cannot be compared word-for-word with English.

For example, to say that "the book is on the table" in Japanese, you would use ある aru.